Bobbi Ann Brady says she pulled off the “unthinkable” in 2022 when she won a southwestern Ontario seat in the legislature running as an independent candidate.
The former Progressive Conservative chose to run an independent campaign after a disagreement over how the local Tory candidate was appointed before the last election — and won.
“What we pulled off in 2022 was really the unthinkable,” Brady told Focus Ontario. “And because it was the unthinkable, they’re really coming for us hard right now — we are the underdog.”
The riding of Haldimand—Norfolk which Brady has represented for the past three years was among the safest Progressive Conservative seats.
Every election from 1995, through years of Liberal and PC government, it had voted blue. Brady herself had long associations with the party and had worked as an aide to Toby Barrett, the Progressive Conservative MPP until 2018.
But when Barrett opted not to run again in 2022, things became more complicated. Brady had planned to seek the nomination to replace him, instead, the party made Ken Hewitt the candidate.
Brady decided to run a campaign against him with a group of volunteers and, when polls closed in June 2022, she had done enough to secure a narrow victory with a couple thousand more votes than her PC rival.
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That defeat, Brady said, put a target on her riding.
“The problem that we encounter is that the big machine is coming after us and they are marching every single cabinet minister in that they can, they are sending MPPs to doorknock for the PC candidate,” she said.
“So I am up against the big blue machine — the big blue machine that I was once part of.”
The PC candidate, Amy Martin, has posted social media pictures and videos with Rob Flack — who was Doug Ford’s agriculture minister.
Brady, however, said she doesn’t think bringing heavy hitters from the party will necessarily help on the doorstep.
“Locals don’t like it — locals don’t like people from outside of the area coming in and knocking on their doors, they want to see their neighbour, they want to see somebody in the community knocking on their doors,” she said.
Along with Brady (independent) and Martin (PC), Vandan Patel is running for the Ontario Liberals and Erica Englert is contesting the riding for the NDP. The Green candidate is Anna Massinen.
After her narrow and historic 2022 win, Brady said she registered her local association with Elections Ontario and has been regularly fundraising to prepare for the next ballot.
“My little army of supporters, they are rising the challenge,” she said. “Everybody loves a good story and this is a fantastic story of the grassroots trying to reclaim democracy within their riding.”
The election will be held on Feb. 27.
